Vanessa McMahon

Meet Andres Borghi, Argentina's up and coming new director who is sure to become the film world's next Peter Jackson! Here he talks about his soon to be released short film (we hope he'll make it a feature as well) Working Day (2010/11) 

me: "Can you speak to us about Working Day? What is it about and what inspired you
to make this film? And please elaborate on your passion and talent for awesome naturalastic visiual effects!" 

Andres: "Working Day tells the story of a giant worker who builds the land of new
Zealand with his own hands. I made this film within the "your big
break" contest put together by Tourism new Zealand and Barrie Osborne
(producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) in which I was the winner
selected by Peter Jackson. The idea of the contest was to make a 3
minutes short film which shows the idea that new Zealand is the youngest
country on earth. So I thought that it would be a good idea to show the
creator of New Zealand being suprised by the arrival of the Maorie (the
first human inhabitants of New Zealand).
This whole idea of the
giant worker came from "The Black Heart", an earlier work of mine. The
Black Heart is a videogame I made in 2009 which tells the story of a
paralel world that is scorched and corrupted. Within the story of the
game there is the concept that our world was constructed by giant wooden
men who used their strength and magic to shape earth. So, I first
thought about linking both works and show New Zealand being created by
these same wooden men. It was pretty obvious at a point that the giant
wooden men visual effects were far too complex for the kind of work the
contest was asking. Then Lucila Las Heras (a friend of mine and a film
director too) suggested the idea of making it funny and less epic and so
the wooden men were transformed into a giant and humble working man.
To
take part in the contest you had to probe that, as a director, you were
able to put together the script you wrote as a real film. My script had
lots of visual effects so I also sent a video showing that I, as a
visual effects compositor myself, was able to generate all the effects
the script demanded. So, in the last stage of the production, I was sent
to Park Road postproduction in Wellington, New Zealand to finish the
editing and put together the VFX. There I was given a special station to
work in the effects and was aided by the great people in Park Road to
make it all in time. It was a very rewarding experience."

me: "Fantastic! Can you tell us about the journey you have been on while making this film? And where did you come up with such an innovative concept?"

Andres: "It wasn't hard at all to make the film. The crew was so professional that
it all went perfect. Something I found funny is how my English accent
went changing thourgh the production. At first it was kinda hard to
comunicate with everyone. My native tongue is Spanish and I speak
english very well, but never had the oportunity to test it with native
english speaking people. So, at first it was ok but by the end of the
day my head ached after trying so hard to understand what everyone told
me. In time I started to get used to it and at the end of the journey my
english was pretty good. It had even been transformed into New Zealand
english!!! By now that accent is almost gone but I still have some
little things left like pronouncing "actualeeeii" instead of "actually"."

me: "And what's in store for you next? Please tell me you will make Working Day into a feature? I beg you. It is just a ground breaking concept."

Andres: "Right now I'm trying to make a horror feature film here in Argentina. The script is finished and I'm searching for producers who are
interested in the project. It is about a man that loses his son in a car
accident. Some time later he starts having nightmares where some
creepy creatures tell him that his son is with them and that he can
recover him but not without a price. It's the same kind of story as the
movie "Jacob's ladder" or "Don't look now". I hope it's made soon and I
think it will be he first Horror argentinian film to really scare the
audience like "The Sixth sense" or "The Ring" do. Well! I
can't think of anything else right now..."

me: "Thanks so much Andres... Cant wait to see this! And your upcoming movies. This is just the beginning!"

Interview by, Vanessa McMahon

photo of Andres (left) and Gollum (right) at Wella studios NZ! LMAO! :-))) JUST KIDDING ANDRES!